Zone Conference

Hola,

Well, here we are again.  I guess the news about the blood moon didn't get to us here, since this is the first I've heard about it.  But this week has been between rainy and overcast all the time, so we wouldn't have been able to see it anyways.  Still, it sounds like it was fun, and I'm glad you had desert to go with it.  I do miss pie.  I haven't eaten it for a long time.

As far as my week goes, it was kind of busy.  They told us last Sunday that our zone was going to have a musical number in the multi-zone conference on Wednesday (multi-zone being the entire mission this time around).  So Sunday night we had to go to the farthest chaple possible in the zone to choose a song and practice.  (We went there because that's the chaple of the zone leaders.)  That took up pretty much all of the time on Sunday.  Then on Monday we stayed after the district meeting to practice.  Then Tuesday came.  Since the conference took place in Amecameca, about as far as possible from where I'm currently serving, we went to stay the night in the mission house, although it's usually known as the casa naranja, or orange house.  (Guess what color it is.)  But they decided to change the time that we were going to meet up to an hour earlier to practice some more.  Then we spent all day in Amecameca Wednesday for the conference.  On the way back one of the other elders assured me that he knew a better way to get home.  He didn't.  After getting a bit lost by the airport (A bit being figurative.  We didn't end up in a different state at the very least.) we finally made it back to our area at about 7:00, having eaten nothing but a muffin, a granola bar, an apple and a juice box (Yay for elementary school snacks!).  So, by the time Thursday came around, we were all a bit fried.  Needless to say, I'm a bit happy to have had a break today.  Not that this week was bad, just hectic.  I enjoyed the mult-zone conference.  They talked about a talk given by Elder Bednar called Becoming a Preach My Gospel missionary.  Basically he gives five points of how to do this, which are: Understanding and knowing who we serve, being worthy, treasuring the words of eternal life, recognizing that the Spirit is the true teacher, and teaching by observing, listening, discerning, and finally speaking.  It's worth the time to read the talk, since it can apply to all of us as members.  Anyways, basically they talked about these parts and about how we can apply them to our situations.  Oh, and as far as our musical number, we decided to sing a version of Be Still My Soul.  In English.  XD  (More than anything, we sang it in English because it doesn't exist in Spanish.)  It came out pretty good.  There were three musical numbers, and the other two were versions of different hyms sung to the tune of Come thou fount, so I'm glad we did something different.

That's about it for news this week.  I'm glad to hear everything turned out OK for Suzette.  It goes to show the power of prayer.  I hope everthing turns out OK with your conferences.  If the parents say you're too easy of a teacher, tell them that you can assign 10 pages of homework every night if they'd prefer.  (That's why I would not be a good teacher.)  I hope everything turns out OK with the car situation as well.  At the very least you don't have five people that need to go to different places.  Four is still kind of hard though.

That's it for me.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

 

Random hills, that looked cool in Mexico City.

Happy Mexican Independence Day!

Hola,

This was a pretty good week.  We survived the 15th, which is good news I guess.  I guess the famous battle of the 15th started at 11:00 pm, so that's when everyone starts lighting off their fireworks.  It's a pretty good representation of a war, because there are explosions on all sides.  Since it's kind of hard to sleep with that kind of noise, we decided to go up to the roof to see the view, which was pretty impressive.  We could see the big show they had in the city center, in a part called Zocalo.  Other than that we stayed in the house talking.  Pretty boring for the biggest party of the year.  Other than that, it was a pretty normal week.  We keep working with Nasario, and he's progressing very well.  Other than him, we've started to work with one of the neices of the Relief Society president, Anel.  She's basically an active member except that she's not been baptized.  I honestly didn't know until recently that she wasn't a member.  Her parents are inactive, and neither shows signs of returning to the church any time soon.  So she prepares herself and goes to church by herself.  She's even gone the extra step of waking up her cousins, who live in front of her, so that they get ready as well.  If all goes according to plan, she should be able to get baptized the week after General Conference.  And hopefully she'll be a positive influence for her family to return to the church.

Other than that, things are about the same here.  It sounds like you had a pretty hectic week again.  Hopefully things calm down soon.  But I'm pretty sure the church is still true, so I'm with you there.

I think that's about it for me this week.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

I've been a slacker for pictures, but here's a random selfie we took while eating on Tuesday.

Temple Dedication

Hola,

 

Another week has passed me by it seems.  This week was pretty good, although things are starting to get that kind of crazy look to them that can only mean one thing: a party.  I don't know if you remember from last year, but September 15th, and not May 5th, is the big patriotic holiday here in Mexico.  (Seriously, nothing happened May 5th.  It was actually a very calm day.)  For the last couple of weeks everyone has been getting ready.  Here that means putting up a flag and lighting off fireworks.  They love their fireworks here.  They're always looking for a reason to use them, and if they don't find one they use them anyways.  The big day is tomorrow, so we have to be inside at 6.  If it's anything like last year, it will be hard to sleep.  They used so many fireworks last year that it sounded like a warzone.  And now I'm in the capital of Mexico.  I imagine it's a bit crazier here.  I guess we'll see tomorrow.

 

Other than that, things are more or less the same here.  The obvious news is the temple rededication.  As always, it was beautiful.  On Saturday they had the cultural activity, which was a play about the church in Mexico.  It was nice, but a lot smaller than some that they have done for other temples.  In part it's because it's only been about 7 years since the last rededication of the temple, and the last time they did a huge production.  Still, it was a nice production.  It was narrated from the view point of a man who learned about the church in 1974.  He and his wife had a son who died when he was 9 years old.  In the end the only reminder that they had of him was a small gold coin that he always carried around with him.  Short time after this, his wife met the missionaries, and in the end they were baptized and sealed in the Mesa Arizona temple, which was the closest temple at the time.  While this is happening, he shares the story of the church in Mexico, starting with the occurances of the Book of Mormon, then moving on to the events of this dispensation.  He talked about all of the things that lead up to the translation of the Book of Mormon to Spanish, and the growth of the church here, all of which lead up to the construction of the temple in Mexico City.  In the end, the couple decides to donate the gold coin to the funds to construct the temple, because they've developed the faith necessary to make that sacrifice.  As far as the rededication goes, it was also beautiful.  We could only go to one of the three sessions, but the one that we could go to was good.  President Eyring and Elder Holland came, as well as the area presidency.  I particularly enjoyed the talk by Elder Holland.  He surprised me by starting and ending his talk in Spanish.  He spoke about the importance of the importance of the coming of Elijah as predicted in Malachi.  In particular he talked about the version given by Moroni when he appeared to Joseph Smith.  He talked about the fact that Elijah came meant that all priesthood ordinances, not just sealings, can take place.  Basically, without that athority, none of them would be relevant in heaven.  He said that that makes it one of the most important days in all of human history, not just in our dispensation.  This is the time when God is completeing all his promises.  Without the authority restored by Elijah, almost all of the people born in the earth would have absolutely no chance at salvation.  He also talked about another difference in the version of Moroni, where he says the promise of the children unto the fathers will be planted in their hearts.  He said that this refers to the premortal life, in which we promised our ancestors that we would do all in our power to give them their chance at salvation.  Part of the reason we build temples is to complete with this very promise.  When he said that, it really struck me.  It made me think a lot about the reason we put so much emphasis in family history work, in missionary work, and in temple work.  All of it has at its roots this promise that we made to those we loved in a time long past.  It made me want to do all I can to move these works along, to be a better missionary.  I feel that there are people that I promised to find, waiting for me here, and I want to help them.

 

Other than that, things are about the same.  We haven't found too many new investigators, but we're working hard.  We did find a new couple, but I don't think too much will come from them right now.  When we knocked, they let us in, but while we talked with the husband, the wife layed in her bed watching a very old movie telling the story of Juan Diego and the Virgen of Guadalupe.  It was kind of akward, but in the end they said we could come back if we wanted too, but they didn't want to make an appointment.  We'll probably go back one more time just to see what happens.  But that's about it for new here.

 

It sounds like things are pretty hectic for you guys.  (Did you see what I did there?)  I hope things calm down soon.  Congratulate Matt for me.

 

That's about it for me.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

 

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

9/7/2015

Hola,

Well, here we are again.  The time keeps flying by, and I feel that every Monday is a bit closer to the last.  This week was a bit strange for the changes.  My new companion is Elder Santos, from Veracruz.  He has about 4 1/2 months in the mission, so he's still got that new missionary smell.  He's 22 years old, and has been a member for about 2 1/2 years, so he still kind of has that recent convert smell as well.  He's a good guy and a good missionary, so this should be a fun cycle.  We also got two new additions to the house and the ward, Elder Robinson, from Washington, and Elder Gomez, also from Veracruz.  It's been pretty fun so far with the four of us together, but very different from the last cycle.  I think I mentioned in my last letter that they joined the two zones in the stake I'm in, and so they took the Zone leaders out of our ward and put two normal missionaries in their place.  If not, I did now.  So, it's different more than anything because they aren't zone leaders.  Don't get me wrong, there were some good things about living with the zone leaders (Imagine insider stock trading, but with changes in the mission in the place of changes in businesses.), but it does put a bit more pressure on a missionary living with all of his leaders.  It could be worse though.  There was a time when the Chalco ward had six missionaries:  the assitants, the zone leaders, the district leader, and his companion.  There's some pressure for you.  Now the zone leaders are in a different ward, so it's a bit lighter.

As far as news goes for this week, it's pretty light.  Nasario, the golden investigator, is still going strong.  He's changed a ton since the first time I met him.  When he came to live with his brother, he was unhealthy spiritually and fisically.  The first time I talked to him I could hardly understand a word he said, and he could barely walk.  Now he seems a lot more confident.  He speaks strongly, walks with purpose, if not very fast.  Basically he's changed incredibly.  Other than that, things are about the same as far as investigators go.  The only other bit of news is that President Crickmore came to our ward on Sunday to speak with the members.  He was a bit direct about their purpose in missionary work.  (Just an FYI, among the missionaries here, it's common to use planchar to refer to being direct, usually without compassion.  Planchar litterally means to iron, I guess because that's how it makes you feel afterwards, like you've been ironed.  Even speaking in English they use it frecuently, usually changing it to planch.  So, if I use that at some point in the future, you know what I mean.  More than anything I put this because I almost used it at this point.)  It was a pretty good lesson, and took the place of Sunday school and priesthood/relief society, and it's nice to have a change of pace every once in a while.

That's about it for news from me.  I feel this is kind of a short one.  I'll try to write more later.  I did get the package.  I needed some new socks pretty bad, so I was happy to see it.  Oh, and Elder Santos likes the mint patties.  I've never seen them here, so they were a good choice.  Oh, and yay for Labor Day.  I honestly had no idea that it was Labor Day.  Still, I'm glad you get a little break.  Hope you enjoy it.

That's it for me this week.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Long

8/31/2015

Hola,

Well, if you've been keeping count, you've probably realized that six weeks have come and gone, and that can only mean one thing, changes.  Things have been changing pretty drastically here the last couple of months.  At the start of this year we had over 180 missionaries.  If I'm not mistaken this cycle we'll have about 150.  Needless to say, they've been closing a lot of areas.  In fact, it seems that they are going to be combining our zone with another.  So they're taking out both of the zone leaders from our ward and they are going to be putting in two normal missionaries.  Elder Cory also has changes, and is going to Chalco.  And that leaves me.  Yep, as weird as it seems, I'm staying for another cycle here in Buena Vista, making it my area where I've lasted the longest.  And I have to guide everybody a bit, since I'm the only one with time here in the ward.  As of yet, I don't know who I'm going to be with, but I'll let you know what happens.  I must admit, I am happy that I get to stay a bit longer here.  And I'm glad that I don't have to pack my suitcases.

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same here.  We went to the temple again on Wednesday, and it's still beautiful.  This time the tour seemed about half as long as the first time.  The guide hardly talked this time through.  Still, it was a good trip.  We also found a couple more investigators this week.  The Lord, it seems, is sending a bunch of non-member family members to live with members of the ward.  One couple came this week from Guerrero, a state to the south of where we are.  They decided to change due to some cartel problems, and needed to choose between two relatives, the brother or the sister of the wife.  They ended up coming to live with her brother, who happens to be the only member in his family.  They seem pretty interested, and came to church this week, so we'll see what happens with them.  Another man came to live with his brother and sister in law last week.  He is one of those golden investigators dipped in platinum and topped off with some diamonds.  He has come two weeks in a row to church, and says that he enjoys it a lot.  We had a church tour (I think that's what they call it in English.  It's visita guiada in Spanish.) with him this week, and he asked us if we have hot water for the baptismal font.  Jokingly we said that we don't, that we baptize in ice water.  He said that he was OK with that, so it seems he wants to get baptized.  I'll keep you updated on what happens with them.

That's about it for news from me this week.  I hope things calm down for you soon in school.  And if you have to do jury duty, remember that he's guilty of something, so you can just vote guilty.  (That's actually a terrible idea.  That's why they've never put me on jury duty.  And the fact that I'm currently in Mexico.)  Follow the facts and the spirit I guess.

Ok, that's about it for me.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

8/24/2015

Hola,

Surprise!  It looks like the powers that be (AKA the area presidency) have spoken, and for the time being at least we can no longer receive permission to leave the mission.  So, we didn't get to leave today.  But we did find a faster route to get to walmart, so that's a good thing I guess.  I'm just glad I got the chance to leave a couple of times before this happened at least.

Other than that, this week was pretty good.  Except that Elder Cory got sick for a couple of days and we couldn't leave the house.  We did get to go to the temple on Wednesday though, so that's good.  It's pretty beautiful inside.  But now that I've been inside, it was a bit weird to go through in normal clothing.  It was also weird since our guides were a sister missionary and her mom.  I don't know how that turned out, but it would be weird for me to work with dad as a missionary.  Still, it was a nice experience, and as always I could feel the spirit strongly there.  it was such a good experience in fact, that we will be going again this Wednesday.  Hopefully this time without sickness.

Other than that, this was a pretty normal week.  We had a pretty interesting lesson yesterday with some new investigators.  The sister has family members who are members, including her mom and a sister who just recieved her mission call to Yucatan.  She enjoys the church, and would probably be a member if not for one thing:  she's deaf.  The christian church where her and her husband attend has a translater and many deaf members.  Her family and one sister can translate, but she would still be the only deaf member in the ward.  Still, she is willing to keep learning if her husband is.  Her husband is also interested, and they came to church yesterday.  We had spoken with him once before, and he has some different beliefs.  Still, yesterday he seemed much more open to listen.  We taught part of the restoration, and when we started to talk about prophets, he asked us how he could recognize a true prophet.  Questions like that make me happy.  We explained the scripture in Mathew 7 that says that we will know them for their fruits.  We then explained that we will recognize the fruits as we try them and ask for the guidance of God.  He has listened to the missonaries before, so he has a Book of Mormon and has heard of Joseph Smith before, so we invited him to read and pray.  He said that he will do it, and he seemed pretty interested.  So, we'll see what comes.

That's about it for news from me this week.  Mexico beat you, school didn't start until today here.  There were certainly a lot more people in the street than there normally are.  School being in is both good and bad for us.  Good because a lot more people are here, but bad because often the people are a bit busier.  That's OK though, we still keep busy.  It also sounds like you had a pretty fun party for dad, and I hope you have a fun one for Sarah today.  I also hope you have a good school year.  I also hope Lori survives Calculus 2.  She'll do fine I'm sure.

That's it for me this week.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

8/17/2015

Hola,

Well, another week has come and gone.  This week was pretty good.  Everyone is pretty excited since the temple open house started on Friday.  The stake where I'm serving will be going four times in total, two times this Wednesday, the 19th, and two times the next Wednesday, the 26th.  We've already signed up to go both days with investigators.  Like I said, we're all pretty excited for that.  The dedication isn't until the 13th of September, so there's about a month of open house.  They've also announced that they are going to have a special tour next Sunday for women and their daughters ages 12 and up where they are going to take them through the bride's room.  (I have NO idea what that room is called in English.  It's called salon de novias in Spanish.)  So, I'll have nothing to do with that.  Just thought I would let you know.

Other than that, things are more or less the same here.  I think I mentioned our investigator Martin last week.  If not, we have an investigator named Martin.  Anyways he is coming allong pretty well.  He came to church for the first time yesterday, and signed up to go to the temple on the 26th with us.  He also reads the Book of Mormon a lot.  The last time we talked with him he had read up to 1 Nephi 8.  It was a bit funny when he was talking about what he had read.  When he talked about Lehi's vision, he called him 'aquel cuate', which would be 'that one dude' roughly translated.  Did I mention he's a 60 year old man? 

Other than that, things are more or less the same here.  It's looking like the rest of this month will be pretty busy for us here.  As far as Nick goes, the best way to get the package to me would probably be to get it to the offices of the mission.  I'm pretty sure you guys have that adress since you've sent me letters and packages there.

Well, that's about it for me this week.  I'm pretty jealous of your trip to Bear Lake.  I hope you enjoyed a raspberry shake for me.  I'm also jealous of the stars.  It's funny, but a giant city like this tends to have too much light polution, and normal polution, to be able to see all but the brightest stars.  I had not heard that they're going to remodel the Jordan River temple.  It seems like they're remodeling temples more and more frequently recently.  I'm also glad that they're treating you nice this time around in your district meeting.

OK, that's it for me this week.  I love you, and I'll talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

8/10/2015

Hola,

Well, here we are again.  The weeks keep going by faster and faster.  I realized yesterday that I'm about a week away from completeing 16 months in the mission.  I don't know about you, but to me it feels more like a combination of 16 days and 16 years.  But at least I accept it.  One of the zone leaders here, Elder Cowdin, has more than 18 months in the mission.  When somebody asks him how long he's been in the mission, he always says, "A bit more than a year."  We always make fun of him when he does that.

As far as news goes, it apears that God has been pouring out his water on Utah and Mexico recently.  Dad said something about a big rainstorm on Friday.  We also got a pretty good one Friday night.  I'd say it's one of the worst storms I've seen in my life.  In the middle we got some marble sized hail, and all in all it lasted almost two hours.  We also got a lightning bolt that hit within our block if I'm not mistaken.  We were all pretty sure that we were going to lose power, but surprisingly enough we didn't.  We were pretty lucky though, it started raining about 9:30, so we escaped it this time.  So, it could be worse I guess.

Other than that, things are more or less the same.  We had a guided tour of the church on Wednesday with a new investigator named Martin.  It went pretty good.  He seems pretty interested and has been reading the Book of Mormon.  He's a few chapters in now from what he says, so that's pretty good.  The only problem is that he works every day of the week.  But we've taught him about the importance of attending church, and he's said he wants to come.  So, we'll see what comes of him.  Other than that, everybody else is about the same.

I guess that's about it for me this week.  Sorry it's a kind of short one this week.  It sounds like you guys have a pretty fun trip planned this weekend, so I hope that goes well.  I also hope you don't drown, although you may need to go to the bathroom a lot.

I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

8/3/2015

Hola,

The weeks are going by faster and faster.  I feel like I'll be home in no time at this rate.  This week was pretty good on this end.  This week I think we changed climates.  We got pretty much no rain, and a lot of heat.  It was a nice break from the rain, but it's not the most pleasent thing walking all day in the heat.  But it looks like that's about to change, since we've got a pretty good storm brewing right now.

Other than strange weather, things were pretty good this week.  We found another new family to teach.  They actually contacted us.  We went to the house of a contact, who wasn't in home, and when we were leaving the mom signaled for us to come over.  When we walked over to where she was, she asked if her son could study with us.  Almost always when they ask something like that, it means that they want to have English lessons, so we asked if he wanted to study English or about God.  She said about God.  She said that every time her son saw the missionaries he said that he wants to study with them, so when she saw us she figured it was the chance.  We set up an appointment with them for the next day, which went pretty well.  (Except that the son, Andres, at one point started reciting Our father who art in heaven and Ave Maria.  Yeah, they may be a bit catholic.(Oh, the mom's name is Nayeli.))  At the end we were about to ask her to come to church on Sunday, but she beat us to it.  She asked us if she could come to our church on Sunday, since she said that she goes to the Catholic church more out of commitment to her family than out of a desire to go.  The best part is that when she came on Sunday, by herself, she brought her mom, Socorro, with her.  (We offered to pass for her in the morning, but she said no.)  Her son didn't come because he had some activity that he had to do.  For the same reason they had to leave after sacrament meeting.  But we have an appointment with them this Wednesday.  (I didn't almost just put miércoles.  Absolutely not.  I can still speak English.)  Other than her, Guillermo and Lizbeth are coming along as well.  Lizbeth was a bit sick this week, including on Sunday, but Guillermo still came.  (Yeah, it's hard to remember the names of the days of the week in English now.  Just an FYI, Sunday is domingo, Monday is lunes, Tuesday is martes, Wednesday is miércoles, Thursday is jueves, Friday is viernes, and Saturday is sábado.  Now you know, so that if I forget you can still understand me.)

That's about it for news this week.  We played soccor today after the zone meeting, and somebody kicked the ball so hard at Elder Cory that it left a mark that lasted a couple of hours.  At least two Elders left bleeding, and a couple more have some pretty good bruises.  And this was a pretty relaxed game as far as Mexico goes.  It was actually pretty fun today.  When it gets competitive it loses its appeal.

That's about it for me this week.  I'm sorry your summer went by so fast.  Enjoy the time you have left I guess.  And at the very least you don't have to have another split this year.  As far as Sarah's new car goes, she did in fact send me the picture.  It looks pretty fancy.

OK, I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long